Spiritual Growth Isn’t a Costume Change 🎩
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
We often approach self-growth like it’s a shopping list.
Read more books.
Learn another concept.
Master the next habit.
Add, add, add.
“Awakening is not adding layers; it’s stripping away illusions.”
But what if awakening wasn’t about becoming more…
and instead, about becoming less covered?
Less disguised.
Less armored.
Less filtered by expectation, performance, or fear.
I used to think healing would make me feel larger.
More powerful. More impressive.
But the deeper the work went, the quieter the results became.
It wasn’t grand revelation, it was a quiet unlayering.
I stopped chasing approval.
I stopped explaining myself where I wasn’t safe.
I stopped performing versions of “me” that made other people more comfortable.
And slowly, I noticed:
The more I let go, the more clearly I saw who I’d been all along.
Not a project to be improved.
A person to be remembered.
That’s what awakening does.
It doesn’t inflate you.
It strips away the illusion that you were ever broken in the first place.
These small notes arrive quietly,
like morning light through a cracked window.
No noise. Just truth.
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Your inner work.
Ask yourself:
“What part of me am I performing—and who am I performing it for?”
Now write this:
“I release the need to be seen a certain way. I choose to be seen as I am.”
Repeat it out loud.
Then live one hour today without the mask.
That’s the start of freedom.
In the end.
You don’t awaken by becoming something new.
You awaken by shedding everything false.
So if the path feels raw...
if you feel smaller, quieter, more uncertain...
you might just be getting closer to what’s real.
Don’t fear the unlayering.
The soul was never lost.
Just hidden beneath what you thought you had to be.
Keep going.
You’re not breaking down.
You’re breaking through.
Lets talk about it.
Have you ever realized that your “personal growth” was actually just a more sophisticated form of hiding?
What illusion did you finally let go of, and what did you uncover underneath?
If you’re ready, share your moment of unlayering.
You might help someone else realize they’re not falling apart, they’re finally falling in.
If this space feels like home…
If it holds your ache, your becoming, your breath…
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Thanks for reading today’s Healing Text.
If you’re here, you’re part of something real, something that holds space for healing without the need to perform. I don’t take that lightly.
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However you choose to support, whether by sharing, buying a coffee, or simply showing up… thank you. Truly.
With gratitude,
— Ryan Puusaari ☕💛